Marcelo Claure exits SoftBank, Robinhood's shares tank, and the teenager tracking Elon Musk's moves

Some week! On Monday, Silicon Valley investors became briefly obsessed with the tweets of Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow, who likened Y Combinator and Stripe to mobsters, and who was largely picked apart by those who thought the analogy was a stretch. The pack moved on last night to Calendly and whether or not a better solution is trading an endless number of emails and text messages to find a time that works for both people. (A lot of people weighed in on this!) Is there a full moon? What is even happening?

SoftBank Group just announced that COO Marcelo Claure has agreed to leave the company. Michel Combes, a former chief executive of the communications company Altice who has served as president of SoftBank Group International since April 2020, will assume Claure’s duties running SoftBank’s international operations, the Japanese conglomerate says. As reported previously, Claire has been engaged for months in a dispute with SoftBank over roughly $2 billion in compensation. The New York Times has more here.

Apple posted quarterly results today that shattered previous records, despite supply chain constraints that CEO Tim Cook says are improving.

Robinhood also held an earnings call earlier today, and it was. well, 'brutal' is probably not overstating things. The company said it anticipates first-quarter revenue of less than $340 million, down 35% compared with 2021 and well below the $448.2 million in revenue for Q1 that Wall Street was expecting, according to FactSet. Monthly active users also fell from the previous quarter. To offset some of the current trend lines, co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev said the company wants to open up its crypto trading services to international customers; it also plans to fully roll out a crypto wallet to all customers in the first quarter of this year and to build products for long-term investing, spending and savings. (Tenev told us at a StrictlyVC event in 2018 that a broader financial services company has always been the goal.) CNBC has more here.

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A lot of public market investors began elbowing their way into the world of venture-backed startups roughly a decade ago, and the ripple effects have been obvious. Think faster funding rounds across the board, higher valuations, and venture firms that have raised increasingly bigger funds rather than cede territory to their newer rivals.

Of course, a pullback by that same, now massive, group of crossover investors could have dramatic ripple effects, too. Already, the markets’ sudden downturn has knocked off billions of dollars in market cap for a variety of publicly traded tech stocks, making richly valued startups just a little less compelling right now in comparison. One term sheet that was offered to a London-based crypto infrastructure company was pulled last week by one of the most prolific investors in recent years, according to one source familiar with the situation. Surely, it won’t be the last term sheet that gets pulled back absent another abrupt market U-turn.

“You can bet your bottom dollar that every investor in the Coatue, Dragoneer, D1 [Capital Partners], Tiger — those crossover funds — are finding more value right now in the public markets right now than they are the private markets,” says Mitchell Green, the founder of his own, 12-year-old crossover firm, Lead Edge Capital.

More here.

BasicBlock, a four-year-old, Lincoln, Neb.-based mobile app that invites truck drivers to scan and upload documents for quick and easy payment (and is expanding its services), has raised $78 million in equity and debt funding from Autotech Ventures, Clear Haven Capital Management, Emergent Ventures, Nelnet, Rise of the Rest, SaaS Ventures and TNT Ventures. The company isn't breaking down how much equity versus debt funding it just secured. Pymnts has more here.

Blockdaemon, a 4.5-year-old, New York-based blockchain infrastructure company for node management and staking, has raised $207 million in Series C funding co-led by Sapphire Ventures and Tiger Global. Other investors in the round include SoftBank, Boldstart Ventures, StepStone Group, Matrix Capital Management and Lerer Hippeau. More here.

CoinTracker, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based crypto portfolio tracker and tax calculator, just raised $100 million in Series A funding led by Accel. Other investors in the round include General Catalyst, Initialized Capital, the Y Combinator Continuity Fund, 776 Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Intuit Ventures and Kraken Ventures. The Block has more here.

Esusu, a four-year-old, New York-based startup that targets immigrant and minority groups and provides rent reporting to help build their credit, has raised $130 million in Series B funding led by SoftBank. TechCrunch has more here.

Fireblocks, a four-year-old, New York-based crypto custodian, has raised $550 million in Series E funding co-led by D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital. Other investors in the round include General Atlantic, Index Ventures, Mammoth, CapitalG, Altimeter, Iconiq, Canapi Ventures and Parafi Growth Fund. The company has now raised roughly $1 billion altogether, per Crunchbase data, and it's being valued at $8 billion. Reuters has more here.

Savage X Fenty, Rihanna’s nearly four-year-old lingerie line, has raised $125 million in new funding led by Neuberger Berman. Other backers in the round include L Catteron and Marcy Venture Partners, the firm co-founded by Shawn “Jay Z” Carter that recently closed a new, $325 million fund. Page Six has more here.

Septerna, a 1.5-year-old, South San Francisco-based biotech targeting G protein-coupled receptors, has raised $100 million in Series A funding led by Third Rock Ventures, which incubated the company (Septerna's CEO is a venture partner with the firm). Other backers in the round include BioCapital, BVF Partners, Invus, Catalio Capital Management, Casdin Capital and Logos Capital. FierceBiotech has more here. 

Skims, a 2.5-year-old, L.A.-based shapewear brand co-founded by Kim Kardashian, has raised $240 million in funding at a $3.2 billion pre-money valuation, reports CNBC (that's up from $1.6 billion last April). Lone Pine Capital led the round, joined by D1 Capital Partners, Thrive Capital, Imaginary Ventures, and Alliance Consumer Growth. More here.

PortalOne, a four-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based gaming startup whose app invites people to play on-demand games and also watch live shows in which users can play against a special guest, has raised $60 million in Series A funding. Tiger Global led the round, joined by a mix or earlier and new investors, including Coatue, TQ Ventures, Temasek, Avenir, Founders Fund, Talis Capital, Connect Ventures, Animoca Brands and Access Industries. TechCrunch has more here.

Zapp, a two-year-old, London-based instant grocery delivery startup, has raised $200 million in Series B funding co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, 468 Capital, and BroadLight Capital, with Atomico, Burda and Vorwerk Ventures — all previous backers — also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Ascend, a year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup behind a “buy now, pay later” commercial insurance tool that combines financing, collections and payables, has raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures, The company has also secured $250 million in debt from HSCM Bermuda. TechCrunch has more here.

Atrium, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that makes sales performance analytics software, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Craft Ventures, with participation from earlier investors Bonfire Ventures, BullPen Capital and CRV. The company has now raised $33 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Censys, a 4.5-year-old, Ann Arbor, Mi.-based search engine for Internet of Things devices and internet assets, has raised $35 million in Series B funding led by Intel Capital; it also named former OneLogin CEO Brad Brooks as its new top banana. TechCrunch has more here.

Compound, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based wealth manager that caters to people in the tech industry with illiquid exposure (startup stock, cryptocurrency), has raised $37 million in funding led by Greenoaks and investor Lachy Groom, with participation from Y Combinator, XYZ, SciFi, Day One Ventures and a long string of notable individuals, including Egon Durban of Silver Lake, and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. TechCrunch has more here.

Eucalyptus, a three-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based outfit that builds and runs digital health companies, has raised $60 million AUD ($42.1 million USD) in Series C funding. The round was led by Bond, with participation from Blackbird Ventures, NewView Capital, W23 Ventures, Airtree Ventures and OneVentures. More here.

HackerOne, the 10-year-old, San Francisco-based bug bounty company, has raised $49 million in Series E funding led by GP Bullhound, with participation from earlier backers Benchmark, NEA, Dragoneer, and Valor Equity Partners. The company has now raised $160 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Slim.ai, a 1.5-year-old, Acton, Ma.-based container security startup, raised $31 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners and StepStone Group co-led the round, joined by Knollwood. VentureBeat has more here.

Mayd, a year-old, Berlin, Germany-based on-demand medicine delivery startup, has raised €30 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Target Global, 468 Capital and Earlybird VC. TechCrunch has more here. 

Parsyl, a four-year-old, Denver, Co.-based cargo insurer, has raised $25 million in Series B funding. HSCM Ventures led the round, joined by Lineage Logistics, Flexport, GLP Capital Partners and Luna. More here.

Vesta, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of mortgage loan origination software that connects banks, credit unions, mortgage bankers and brokers, has raised $30 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, joined by Zigg Capital and earlier investors Conversion Capital and Bain Capital Ventures. The company has now raised $35 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

The Vets, a year-old, New York-based tech-enabled pet healthcare platform that provides at-home care, has raised $40 million in seed funding led by Target Global, PICO Venture Partners and Bolt Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Revelstoke, a two-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based security orchestration automation and response startup, raised $13 million in Series A funding, including from ClearSky, CrossLink Capital and Rally Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

Bodhi, a 3.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based software platform whose customers -- solar companies -- use it to personalize their communications with homeowners, has raised $4 million in funding led by Clean Energy Ventures. More here.

Epsilon3, a year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based developer of spacecraft operations software, has raised $2.8 million in seed funding from Stage Venture Partners, MaC VC, Lux Capital, Village Global, Y Combinator,  Pioneer Fund, Soma Capital and Broom Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Nala, a 4.5-year-old, Tanzanian startup that recently pivoted from local to international money transfers, has raised $10 million from Amplo, Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners and DFS Labs. TechCrunch has more here. 

Finmark, a two-year-old, Raleigh, N.C.-based based maker of financial modeling software for startups, has raised $6.5 million in extended seed funding from American Express Ventures. The company has now raised more than $11 million altogether. More here.

Nvisionx, a four-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based data risk governance platform, has raised $4.6 million in seed funding from Morgan Stanley, PBJ Capital and CreativeCo Capital. More here.

Pimloc, a 5.5-year-old, U.K.-based AI service for anonymizing video (like the blurring of faces or licence plate), just raised $7.5 million in funding led by Zetta Venture Partners, with participation from  Amadeus Capital Partners and Speedinvest. TechCrunch has more here.

Vest, a 15-month-old, Mexico City, Mexico-based Latin American brokerage for U.S. stocks, has raised $6 million in seed funding led by Founders Fund. Nazca, Class 5 Global, FJLabs, Tamarack Global and some notable angel investors also joined the round, including Tiger Global's Scott Shleifer. TechCrunch has more here.

Scribe Security, a year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based supply chain security startup, has raised $7 million in seed funding from Elron Ventures and Tal Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

The.com, a San Francisco-based low-code website building platform with community-created components that users can share across websites, has raised $4.4 million in seed funding. NFX led the round, joined by Sound Ventures, VSC Ventures, Village Global and investor-podcaster Harry Stebbings. More here.

Woflow, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based data infrastructure company behind food delivery companies, has raised $7.3 million in Series A funding co-led by Base10 Partners and Construct Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

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Atlassian has acquired Percept.AI, an AI company that offers an automated virtual agent support solution — a chatbot, basically. Atlassian plans to integrate this virtual agent technology into Jira Service Management, its tool for helping IT teams provide better service to employees and customers. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. Percept, which passed through Y Combinator's program in 2017, doesn't look to have raised tons f funding, in any case. Crunchbase data shows it raised seed funding (an undisclosed amount of it) from Hike Ventures, Builders VC, Cherubic Ventures, Amino Captial, and Tribe Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Scott Barclay, a former partner with Point72 Ventures and DCVC, has joined Insight Partners to focus on health deals. 

Brett Rochkind, a growth equity veteran of General Atlantic and CRV, has joined SoftBank Vision Fund, reports Axios. More here.

Elon Musk messaged the owner of a Twitter account that tracks his private jet, with an offer of $5,000 if he took the account offline,  says Protocol. According to the outlet, the owner of the account, a 19-year-old, received a message months ago at 12:13 a.m. from Musk. It said: "Can you take this down? It is a security risk." The teen replied: "Yes I can but it'll cost you a Model 3 only joking unless?" More here. 

According to Vanity Fair, investor Peter Thiel hosted about two dozen Republican donors at his 10,000-square-foot Miami compound last night to raise money for Wyoming Republican Harriet Hageman, the Donald Trump–backed candidate running a primary challenge against GOP representative Liz Cheney. More here.

Pinterest is looking to hire a corporate development deal lead that reports to the head of corporate development.

Apple is stifling competition through its mobile app store, attorneys general for 34 U.S. states and the District of Columbia said today, as they appealed against a ruling that let the iPhone maker continue some restrictive practices. Reuters has the story here.

Google will invest as much as $1 billion in Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest mobile phone operator, as firms race to offer inexpensive data and digital offerings in the only billion-people-plus market still open to foreign companies. Bloomberg has more here.

VC funding to early-stage Latinx-founded startups in the U.S. has stalled. Crunchbase News takes a look at why.

"Fight Club" gets a new ending in China – and the authorities win.

Fatigued singles are ditching apps to meet IRL.

Once the stuff of art house films, male nudity is going mainstream.

Crypto kings are buying all the best real estate.

How to float along the Nile for around $100,000 per week.